Captain of the club Southend United in League One, the English 3rd division, Timothée Dieng, tells us about his confinement and how he is keeping in shape while awaiting a decision from the English football authorities concerning a possible resumption of competitions. The 28-year-old defensive midfielder, trained in Grenoble and passed through Brest, Oldham, and Bradford City, keeps fishing with his family in Brignoud, a small town in the Grenoble region.

Hi Tim, can you already tell us how you are and how it's going for you at the moment?

Listen it's fine, I went back to my family to spend time with them, I didn't want to be alone in England. Everyone is fine, everyone is healthy so that's the main thing in these difficult times..

Where are you geographically?

I'm back in Brignoud, Brignoud City! It is in the Grenoble region in the Rhône-Alpes. This is where I grew up, where it all started with my first club, FC Villard Bonnot, where I started as a 2nd year goalkeeper. At the time, I was a fan of Barthez so I wanted to be a goalkeeper..

You respect the confinement well?

Yes totally, I put on the mask to go shopping because I think you shouldn't take risks and you have to respect the rules. Afterwards, when I go out to play sports, I confess that I do not put on a mask. I have a friend of mine who is a sports coach (Editor's note: Brian Kssantina@brkassantina on Instagram) and my brother who is a professional footballer (editor's note:Nathaniel Dieng evolves in Rodez in Ligue 2) is also here at the moment so we are doing sessions all 3 to keep in shape. We have a football field next to our house, there is an athletics track and all that, so we do our sessions there.

How is your typical day of confined footballer?

So I get up around noon, I have breakfast, it can be cereals, bread, always with tea, either green with mint or lemon, it's not bad, and I watch the news. Afterwards, we watch a series with the family, I eat, and in general we go to train at the stadium with my brother and my friend. We train for about an hour and I come home, sit down, watch TV or play Play, and then Brian does live sports sessions on Instagram for people who don't have a coach. I do the session with him, that gives me a second session during the day. It is good for people who are confined and who do not know how to organize their sessions. After that, we eat with the family, we play cards, Uno, we watch TV, and I go to bed quite late anyway, around 1 or 2 a.m.

How do you motivate yourself to make the effort during a period of confinement??

Luckily my buddy is there, because frankly, for me it would have been harder to keep up a training rhythm without having someone to push me every day. Afterwards, for motivation, I already know that the championship can resume at any time and that at any time, I can receive a call to tell me that I have to go back because training resumes next week, so I have to keep fit. But even beyond that, training keeps you busy during confinement.

How does the sequel look for you??

Football level we are clearly waiting. We don't know if the season will resume, when we can resume football, under what conditions, so frankly it's quite vague. For my part, my contract has been renewed for one season, which gives me some security. So I'm waiting for the Football League's decision to find out what will happen to football in England.

You can talk to me about what you do during your training sessions

We do a different session every day. There is the push session where we work a lot on the shoulders and chest, mainly with resistance bands, and the pull session which focuses on the back. We also have jogging sessions and sessions with a little ball, especially focused on liveliness where we work on support with ladders. In addition to that, in the sessions on Instagram it's different every day, and it alternates between the upper and lower body. I do this every day except Sunday.

And how do you feel physically all of a sudden?

I think I'm fine, after that it's sure it's not the same type of effort as in training so it's certain that the recovery will be hard, even if I think it will be the same for everyone. But I'm fine, I haven't gained much weight, we have to talk about that too, because it's true that I eat more than usual.

You pay attention to food How do you control it? ?

I am careful yes, I drink a lot of water already and I eat fairly balanced, with fruits, vegetables and all that. Afterwards there is a little more nibbling, it's true, but I try to be careful. Of course, he still has more dishes in sauce than usual.

How do you maintain motivation in this particular environment??

Frankly, I'm not going to hide from you that it's hard mentally to push yourself. If I didn't have my buddy it would have been complicated. I would have gone eh, I would have respected the program that the club sent us, I would have done running sessions, but it would have been harder because you don't know how long the confinement will last, and that you tell yourself that you're doing this but that you don't know when you're going to resume. You have to stay strong in your head and tell yourself that all the sessions you do are not wasted work. If you don't do them, you'll come back to training rusty and you'll have wasted your time. Afterwards, being with the family is good, it allows you to recharge your batteries mentally, it's refreshing because I don't have the opportunity to see them very often.

You received your FOOTBOKS, what did you think of it??

Yes, I tested the FOOTBOKS and I was really surprised by the quality of the products, it helped me a lot, I used everything. It's a good concept because I think there are a lot of people who don't know what to take when it comes to dietary supplements. This box is really complete and it brings everything you need to recover well and to prepare well for the competition.

You have favorite products?

I lovedOne Gum chewing gum to take before the sessions there, it really boosted me. The gels too, I already use them in clubs so I knew the effectiveness of these products, and after theprotein candy bars I liked them, they were really good.

You took them at the end of the session or quietly for the 4 hours?

At the end of training, but I admit that there is one that I took for the 4h, it's proteins wait!

Can you take a picture for us??

Yeah of course, but hey, there's no hairdresser there huh (laughs), I'll surely put the cap on.